Entries tagged with “Ernest Dykes”

Jun 29, 2026

Two Former Death-Sentenced Californians Seek Compensation Over Official Misconduct

Two for­mer California death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers, Ernest Dykes and Curtis Ervin, have filed law­suits against Alameda County, accus­ing the District Attorney’s office of​“set\[ting\] out to rig the juries” in their cap­i­tal cas­es. Both men were released from prison after their death sen­tences were reduced because of the dis­cov­ery of uncon­sti­tu­tion­al pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct dur­ing each of their jury selec­tions in the 1990s. The law­suits allege that the Alameda County…

Feb 05, 2025

Focus on Race: Alameda County Resentencings Illustrate Long History of Excluding Jurors of Color from the Jury Box

When Ernest Dykes was brought to tri­al on death penal­ty charges in Alameda County, California in the mid-1990s, it was rea­son­ably expect­ed that pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys alike would work hard to shape the jury to their ben­e­fit. What Mr. Dykes (who is Black) didn’t know until recent­ly, how­ev­er, was just how far the pros­e­cu­tion would go to curate…